Introduction

In the last few decades, India has firmly established itself as one of the leading developing countries in the world. The administrative policies and procedures laid down by the authorities have always been well in line with international developments, meeting the requirements of the changing times with an effortless ease.

On similar lines, the Indian practices have also responded to the international call for establishing and implementing massive waste management strategies, thought the scale might vary at the grassroots level. However, there have been a vast number of roadblocks and problems in the implementation of effective services for waste management in India, both at the administrative and individual level.

The Progress

The biggest and most critical hurdle that obstructs the effective implementation of the desirable services for waste management in India is the lack of a proper legislative guideline.

Experts point out at the lack of an Indian policy document that clearly examines waste as a par of a cycle o production-consumption-recovery.

The essentials service of waste management in India continue to be marred by the fact that in urban India, waste management is still a linear process, involving the steps of collection and disposal of waste products, leading to potential environmental and health hazards.

It is such observations that indicate toward a massive crisis in context of waste management in India, especially in urban India.

Experts on the subject feel that there is a dire necessity for research and awareness on the subject. In a developing country like India, struggling hard to maximize on the potential of its existing resource bank, it is important for the manufacturers, industrialists as well as households to recognize waste products as an essential energy reserve. The concept of reuse and recycling has to be brought in at all levels if waste management in India is to be made a flourishing practice.

Besides, India also continues to suffer from the perennial problem of massive migration from rural to urban areas, bringing along with it the relevant set of problems and issues. In a country where the demand and supply ratio of resources remains quite imbalanced, the enhanced consumption of natural resources along with the lack of administrative control has an aggravating effect on the existing problem.

Waste management in India remains at quite an infancy stage right now.

Though there are a few cases of the big industrial houses and administrative authorities adopting effective recycling and reuse polices, yet the impact is far from effective, especially at the grassroots levels in the country, which eventually matter the most.

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Introduction

Waste management has come to stay as one of the most controversial, well researched and analyzed subject of the modern industrial world. With production and commercial activity on an incessant rise, it is a natural fallout for the quantity and the nature of waste products to change dramatically, raising a global concern.

Study of waste management has always occupied a major attention owing to the importance it holds in the contemporary world. From conferences and summits to volumes of study and reference material being prepared on the matter, the issue surely holds center-stage as far as public and administrative attention is concerned.

Key Dimensions

In the study of the waste management concept, it is very important to pay careful attention to various individual aspects of the process, which also give a reflection on the entire gamut of causes, solutions and remedies of the problem.

To begin with, waste management is essentially defined as the collection, transport, processing, recycling and disposal of waste materials or products. Such waste materials can be broadly defined into various categories such as household waste, hazardous waste, toxic waste, hospital waste many more. There are a number of waste management methods that are generally followed in accordance with the nature and quantity of waste materials and the processing required in relevance of the same.

The first category of processes relevant to the waste management concept is the series of disposal methods that might be followed. The first and most common disposal method followed is the concept of landfills, which basically involves burying of the waste of the purpose of disposal. In the last few years, this method of waste disposal has often met with a lot of criticism especially for solid waste in view of the environment hazards.

Incineration is another common method of waste disposal, involving combustion of waste material, conversion of waste products into heat, gas, steam and ash. This method of waste disposal is used to dispose of various categories of waste including, solid, liquid as well as gaseous.

Moving on, the next crucial process as a part of the waste management concept is the step of recycling, which is basically the process of processing waste products to recycle, reuse or recover material of productive value.

Some of the most effective and popular methods of recycling include physical reprocessing, biological reprocessing and energy recovery.
The series of avoidance and reduction methods followed by the industry today are another important aspect of the waste management concept. Such methods of avoidance include the reuse of second-hand products, repairing broken items as against buying new ones, designing products to be reusable, encourage less use of disposable products and many more.

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